I am back to GOTM after a half year break, and this is my first "real" attempt at a non-military win (diplo).
Playing contender.
I am enjoying the game so far: a decent difficulty level, and not tedious thanks to normal speed and high sea level!
The UN is not too far away if you beeline to mass media, so the perfect strategy here is to setup a single big research center in the capital, that will bring in most of the beakers needed. Still I want to have six good productive cities by the time education is researched, so that I can build Oxford, so my focus in the early game is on rapid expansion, as usual.
Capital build order was warrior, workboat, workboat, worker (start at size four, whip two citizens), workboat (for exploration), workboat (for the second city), granary (prebuild), settler (start at size five, whip one citizen on the last turn for big overflow), Oracle (built in 1520BC, take metal casting), finish granary, ... (mostly settlers and workboats) I think a direct CS slingshot was possible thanks to the gold hill, but I decided to play solid.
I expanded quickly to 6 cities, the last one of them was settled in 300BC (bringing my research rate down to 60%, not that bad). The capital also provided all those cities with workboats and MP warriors. I am whipping granaries, lighthouses, forges and libraries (required for universities) everywhere, and I should have all cities equipped with all those buildings by the time I get eductaion. Most land tiles available are cottaged and the rest will be cottaged in the near future (except hills and bonuses of course).
I lightbulbed CS in 50BC (had enough beakers invested prior to that, so the prophet from the Oracle got it for me instantly). I also know Alphabet & Literature (planning to build the GL & NE) and have a nice sum of money saved to fuel the research of paper and education. I still don't have an academy in my capital by 1AD, not even a library IIRC. As you can see my research is slow, but I hope to catch up in the second part of the game.
I have contact with all civs except one. I got confucianism and it spread to China & Germany who had no religion of their own. Asoka is hindu, Capac is buddhist, Saladin is jewish (and also has christianity). I have converted to confucianism recently, will try to cultivate Frederick and Qin as allies to get their votes peacefully. It looks like Capac is going to be the second candidate. I think I am going to conquer Asoka at some point to get more population for voting. The last remaining civ can propably be converted and that should give me enough votes.